Data collected and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal from more than 250 homeless organizations have counted at least 550,000 homeless people so far, a 10 percent rise from last year’s reports. The numbers gathered from cities and rural areas show homelessness as it was on a single night earlier this year.
The upward trend means that the US will probably reach and pass the 2023 estimate of 653,000 homeless people. It’s the highest number since the government began sharing such data in 2007.
The final estimate of the number of unhoused people will depend on data not yet reported from areas such as New York City, which had the highest population of any city in 2023.
Even if you dont care about people or think it’s their own fault…
It’s literally less of a tax burden to feed them, house them, and provide free preventive medical care than what we do now. And at that point you would also want to then provide them with jobs services to get them back on their feet and off assistance if possible.
Like, I think we should help them because of that whole “basic human decency” thing…
But even for purely selfish reasons we should help. The only reason not to want to is ignorance or just for the sake of cruelty.